BBB dealing with swine flu

The Better Business Bureau is warning consumers to be on the lookout for fraudulent emails and websites trying to take advantage of the current swine flu outbreak and the growing public concern over it.

"Scammers are successful, because they use current headlines as hooks to catch a lot of fish," BBB president Tom Bartholomy said. "With the global interest in a potential pandemic of swine flu, scammers have a very large pond to go 'phishing' in."

According to McAfee Avert Labs, an online security company, spammers began pumping out emails as soon as the first cases of swine flu were reported in the news, accounting for 2 percent of all spam messages. According to other online reports, more than 250 Web sites with the term "swine flu" have been registered in the last few days. These emails and websites are marketing swine flu 'vaccines,' medicines and 'survival' kits.

The BBB offers the following advice to avoid swine flu scams:

. Avoid opening emails, clicking on links or opening attachments from unknown senders that could infect your computer with spyware or malware to steal your personal information. Instead, delete the emails or forward them to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov.

. Do not believe online offers for vaccines against swine flu because a vaccine does not exist. For information and updates on the swine flu outbreak, visit www.cdc.gov/swineflu

. Check your anti-virus and anti-spyware software to see they are up to date. If your computer becomes infected as the result of spam email about swine flu, you can report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

For more information, please visit The Better Business Bureau online at www.bbb.org or call the BBB at 1-877-317-7236 toll-free in N.C. and S.C